Tag Archives: Les Anciens Canadiens

La Débâcle / The Debacle

13 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by in Quebec, Scotland

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The Passing Storm, Saint-Ferréol by Cornelius Krieghoff,1854 (National Gallery of Canada)

—ooo—

We are skipping material we have already covered. We therefore skip La Corriveau. Our next big event is la débâcle, or the spring break-off of the ice on the St Lawrence. You will remember that the French built their seigneuries on the shores of the St Lawrence River which they used as a road in winter and in summer. During the winter, the ice on the St Lawrence could be very thick. One could cross the river in a horse and carriage, or a sleigh, un traîneau. The St Lawrence was Nouvelle-France’s highway. It took one from Quebec City to Trois-Rivières, and then to Montreal. Lots were narrow but they went back a considerable distance. When the water was frozen, the ice could support a large weight. When the river flowed, one used a boat, often a canoe.

José, a domestic, has driven to Quebec to pick up Jules and Arché, whom Jules’ father wants to meet. However, a huge noise is heard. The ice is breaking and Dumais breaks a leg. He cannot escape unassisted. Events in Les Anciens Canadiens occur on the shores of the St Lawrence River. When the Compagnie des Cent-Associés was formed in 1627, by Richelieu, it was given a mission. The people of New France were to harvest fur, Nouvelle-France’s gold. However, those who paddled canoes had to work under a bourgeois. In other words, voyageurs were hired (engagés). If not, they were called coureurs des bois and were fined if they were caught.

In the seventeenth century, Radisson went as far as the Hudson’s Bay and returned to the shores of the St Lawrence with a hundred canoes filled with precious pelts. Radisson was an explorer, not a voyageur. When he showed his pelts, he was treated like a coureur des bois and his pelts were confiscated. Miffed, he went to England and Prince Rupert sent a ship to the Hudson’s Bay. This led to the establishment, in 1670, of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Company owned Rupert’s Land which Canada would purchase when Confederation occurred, in 1867.

Dumais, who is caught in the ice, seems a Métis. There were métis. The French lived with Amerindians and they married Amerindians. Moreover, the notion of the noble savage originates, to a large extent, in the Jesuits’s Relations. The Jesuits realized that one could be a good person without being baptized. It was a shock for the Robes Noires and it led to the emergence of a character called the Noble Savage. Lahontan, a French aristocrat, wrote about the Noble Savage. He named him Adario. So, Dumais’s ancestors could include Amerindians. Although Amerindians would torture the whites, many were “nobles.“ But our Dumais, whatever his ancestry, is cought in the ice and would die, were it not for the skills of an athletic Scotsman, Arché. Arché saves Dumais life.

The Noble savage, in literature, an idealized concept of uncivilized man, who symbolizes the innate goodness of one not exposed to the corrupting influences of civilization.

Britannica [1]

La Débacle / the Debacle

Arché saves Dumais’ life

Dumais cannot help himself. He will die, but Arché proves a heroic Scot.

« Capitaine, je nage comme un poisson, j’ai l’haleine d’un amphibie ; le danger n’est pas pour moi, mais pour ce
malheureux, si je heurtais la glace en l’abordant. Arrêtez-moi d’abord à une douzaine de pieds de l’îlot, afin de mieux calculer la distance et d’amortir ensuite le choc : votre expérience fera le reste. Maintenant une corde forte, mais aussi
légère que possible, et un bon nœud de marin. »
Arché au capitaine Marcheterre (V: p. 97)
[“Captain, I am like a fish in the water; there is no danger for me, but for the poor fellow yonder, in case I should strike that block of ice too hard and dash it from its place. Stop me about a dozen feet above the island, that I may calculate the distance better and break the shock. Your own judgment will tell you what else to do. Now, for a strong rope, but as light as possible, and a good sailor’s knot.”]
Arché to captain Marcheterre (IV: 68-69)

Dumais, malgré son état de torpeur apparente, malgré son immobilité, n’avait pourtant rien perdu de tout ce qui se passait. Un rayon d’espoir, bien vite évanoui, avait lui au fond de son cœur déchiré par tant d’émotions sanglantes à la vue des premières tentatives de son libérateur, mais cette espérance s’était ravivée de nouveau en voyant le bond surhumain que fit de Locheill s’élançant de la cime du rocher. Celui-ci avait à peine, en effet, atteint la glace où il se cramponnait d’une seule main, pour dégager, de l’autre, le rouleau de corde qui l’enlaçait, que Dumais, lâchant le cèdre protecteur, prit un tel élan sur sa jambe unique, qu’il vint tomber dans les bras d’Arché.
(V: p. 102)
[Dumais, in spite of his apparent stupor, had lost nothing of what was passing. A ray of hope had struggled through his despair at sight of Lochiel’s tremendous leap from the summit of the rock. Scarcely had the latter, indeed, reached the edge of the ice, where he clung with one hand while loosening with the other the coil of rope, than Dumais, dropping his hold on the cedar, took such a leap upon his one uninjured leg that he fell into Archie’s very arms.]
(IV: 71-72)

Dumais is very thankful. How can Dumais repay? He will.

– Comment m’acquitter envers vous, dit-il, de ce que vous avez fait pour moi, pour ma pauvre femme et pour mes pauvres enfants !
Dumais à Arché (V: p. 106)
[“How can I ever repay you,” said he, “for all you have done for me, for my poor wife, and for my children?”]
Dumais to Arché (IV: 73-74)

Our noble Arché tells Dumais that he need simply recover.

– En recouvrant promptement la santé, répondit gaiement de Locheill.
Arché à Dumais (V: p. 106)
[“By getting well again as soon as possible,” answered Lochiel gayly.] 
Arché to Dumais (IV: 74)

A Night Among the Savages

Dumais saves Arché’s life

Dumais will repay Arché. He will save him from being tortured by Amerindians. To Amerindians, Arché must be tortured. First, Dumais tells la Grand’ Loutre that Arché is not an Englishman. He is Scottish.

– Que mon frère écoute, dit Dumais, et qu’il fasse attention aux paroles du visage-pâle. Le prisonnier n’est pas Anglais, mais Écossais ; et les Écossais sont les sauvages des Anglais. Que mon frère regarde le vêtement du prisonnier, et il verra qu’il est presque semblable à celui du guerrier sauvage.
Dumais à la Grand’ Loutre (XIII: p. 291)
[“Let my brother heed my words,” said Dumais. “The prisoner is not an Englishman, but a Scotchman, and the Scotch are the savages of the English. Let my brother observe the prisoner’s clothing, and see how like it is to that of a savage warrior.”]
Dumais to Grand-Loutre (XII: 185-186)

Dumais then tells Grand-Loutre that the prisoner, Arché, is the one who saved Dumais’ life.

– Eh bien ! reprit Dumais en se levant et ôtant sa casquette, ton frère déclare, en présence du Grand-Esprit, que le prisonnier est le jeune Écossais qui lui a sauvé la vie !
Dumais à la Grand’Loutre (XIII: p. 302)
[“Very well!” replied Dumais, rising and taking off his cap, “thy brother swears in the presence of the Great Spirit that the prisoner is none other than the young Scotchman who saved his life!”] (XII: 192-193)

Conclusion

The novel is binary. In Chapter V (FR), Arché has saved Dumais’s life. In Chapter XIII (FR), Dumais saves Arché’s life. It is near-perfect symmetry. Moreover, we are witnesses to a friendly, brotherly, relationship between the French and New France’s natives. The French could not arrive in North America as conquerors. They were dying of scurvy. Nor could they harvest precious pelts, without a canoe and snow-shoes. As for Scottish explorers, they needed voyageurs and Amerindians. There is considerable truth to Montesquieu‘s théorie des climats.

Dumais’s comment according to which the Scots are the savages of the English is extremely funny. But Dumais must be understood. La Grand’Loutre would not hurt a person of is considered a savage by the English. Nor would he hurt a person who saved his “brother.” But one could say that Dumais is Les Anciens Canadiens‘ voyageur or Métis.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Ressources
Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN

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[1] Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Noble savage”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Apr. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/noble-savage. Accessed 13 June 2021.

Cornelius Krieghoff (to Scottish music)
Aubert de Gaspé‘s manoir, restored (fr Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
13 June 2021
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Les Anciens Canadiens/Cameron of Lochiel

09 Wednesday Jun 2021

Posted by in Quebec, Scotland, the Fur Trade, Voyageurs

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Cameron of Locheil by H. C. Edwards (EBook#53154)
Manoir de Philippe Aubert de Gaspé à Saint-Jean-Port-Joli (Patrimoine culturel du Québec)

Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN

Last weekend, I worked on Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé‘s Anciens Canadiens. The novel can be read online. It was translated twice by Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, an excellent Canadian writer, but Mr Roberts’s second and finer translation, published in 1905, is entitled Cameron of Lochiel [EN]. I had never looked for a translation of Les Anciens Canadiens [1] and this English title intrigued me. Upon due reflexion, the title Sir Roberts gave Les Anciens Canadiens seemed altogether legitimate. As the events of the Anciens Canadiens unfold, Jules d’Haberville becomes Cameron of Lochiel. Scotland fell to England at the Battle of Culloden (1746), which is discussed in Les Anciens Canadiens. As for New France, it will also fall to England, but it will have a glorious past.

After our friends complete their studies, Jules joins the French army and Arché, the British army. Archie serves in North America during the Seven Years’ War, called the French and Indian War. Ironically and tragically, Arché, a soldier, is ordered to set ablaze his friends’ manoir. Nouvelle-France is conquered by the British. Therefore, the defeat of Nouvelle-France mirrors the defeat of Scotland, a more important country, and, by the same token, it puts Jules and Arché / Archie on an equal footing. They are the two sides of the same coin. So, metaphorically, Jules has become Cameron of Lochiel. His country has been defeated and, despite the role Arché / Archie plays during the war, the friends are reunited. In 1759, the French in Canada fell to England as did the Scots, in 1746.

After the “conquest,” Blanche d’Haberville will not marry Roberts’s Cameron of Lochiel, whom she loves, but Jules will marry an Englishwoman, thereby giving himself a second and redeeming identity, an instance of the collaborator’s ideology. He is the conquered and the conqueror. As for Aubert de Gaspé, the author and a Seigneur, he will use Arché’s guided tour of a Seigneurie to consign New France to a réel absolu, that of fiction, the life and customs of anciens Canadiens. Jules familiarizes Arché with the life of a Seigneur and that of the inhabitants of a seigneurie, not to mention the life of New France’s humbler subjects and its Amerindians.

Missing are New France’s voyageurs, river drivers (draveurs), and bûcherons. Their life and their songs are chronicled elsewhere. Les Anciens Canadiens nevertheless memorializes and mythologizes the presence of the French in North America. France will live forever on the shores of the St Lawrence River because it is remembered, an anamnesis.

La Patrie littéraire

When John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham wrote his Report on the Rebellions of 1837-1838, he described the French in Canada as a people lacking a history and a literature: un peuple sans histoire ni littérature. The French set about proving him wrong. Two literary schools were instituted, one in Montreal and one in Quebec City. The people of New France quickly built a patrie littéraire,[2] a literary homeland.  

Our colleague Derrick J. Knight was correct in suggesting a link between the Scots and the French in Canada. Matters would change when Confederation occurred. However, the spirit of the Auld Alliance would persist. Our Scottish explorers worked at an early point after the Conquest of Canada, formalized by the Treaty of Paris,1763. The Battle of Culloden took place less than two decades before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, fought on 13 September 1759.

Canada’s bon Anglais is Scottish, he is both John Neilson and Cameron of Locheill. John Neilson stated that there could be a blend, un amalgame, of the two “races” in Canada, the French-speaking race, and the English-speaking race: the two sides of the same coin. There was an amalgame. Simon Fraser left Montreal accompanied by 19 voyageurs and 2 Amerindians. Explorers were guided by voyageurs and Amerindians whom they trusted.

Patriotism, devotion to the French-Canadian nationality, a just pride of race, and a loving memory for his people’s romantic and heroic past—these are the dominant chords which are struck throughout the story. Of special significance, therefore, are the words which are put in the mouth of the old seigneur as he bids his son a last farewell. The father has been almost ruined by the conquest. The son has left the French army and taken the oath of allegiance to the English crown. “Serve thy new sovereign,” says the dying soldier, “as faithfully as I have served the King of France; and may God bless thee, my dear son!”
Sir Charles G. D. Roberts’s Cameron of Lochiel (Preface)

An incident in the rebellion of 1745, David Morier (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Montcalm blessé à la bataille des plaines d’Abraham et ramené à Québec (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RELATED ARTILES

Sources and Resources

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[1] There are four: The Canadians of Old, Georgina Pennée (1864); Charles G. D. Roberts (1890), and Jane Brierley (1997). There are anonymous translations.
[2] Bourbeau-Walker, M. (2002). La patrie littéraire : errance et résistance.
Francophonies d’Amérique,(13), 47–65. https://doi.org/10.7202/1005247ar

Love to everyone 💕

Philippe Aubert de Gaspé (1786-1871)
(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

© Micheline Walker
9 Juin 2021
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La Corriveau: a legend

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Canada, Legends

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The Corriveau of Legend is a woman who killed several husbands and was condemned to be hanged and put in chains in an iron cage. She scarred travellers. But there was a real Corriveau, Marie-Josephte Corriveau (1733 -1763).
 

Les Anciens Canadiens

In Philippe Aubert de Gaspé‘s Les Anciens Canadiens, as Jules and Arché travel from the Jesuit College in Quebec City to the Gaspé family’s manoir, Arché is told about La Corriveau.

The Real Corriveau

Marie-Josephte Corriveau (1733 at Saint-Vallier, Quebec – 18 April 1763 at Quebec City) was married at the age of 16 to Charles Boucher, 23, a farmer. She gave birth to three children, but Charles died on 27 April 1760. At the time, his widow was not suspected of murder.

Marie-Josephte remarried on 20 July 1761, to another farmer from Saint-Vallier, Louis Étienne Dodier, who was found dead on 27 January 1763. He had wounds to his head and it was suggested he had been trampled by horses. There was an inquiry into his death and Marie-Josephte was suspected of murdering him. She was tried, convicted and condemned to death.

To protect her, her father took the blame for the murder. She was his only surviving child. However, before being put to death, he told his confessor about his lie and, as a result, the real murderess was tried in Quebec City, convicted of murder and hanged on 18 April 1763. What is told in a confessional cannot be revealed, but it would appear the priest talked.

The dissemination of the Legend

Of particularly interest is the fact that the Corriveau was to be exposed to the public view, put in chains in a cage, called gibbet, at Pointe-Lévy. She was to remain exposed until 25 May at the earliest. She was then buried.

Never had a body been exposed to the public in the land that had just become the Province of Québec. There was a culture shock. Moreover, it was presumed that if she had killed her second husband, she may also have killed her first husband. The number of murdered husbands kept growing, and a legend was born.

The Nineteenth Century and the importance of folklore and legends

Moreover, during the nineteenth century, as of the Congress of Vienna (September, 1814 to June, 1815) to be precise, the final act of which was signed nine days before Napoléon’s final defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815, many countries were wiped off the map of Europe. So people started to gather folklore. It was a way of giving themselves an identity.

It is not surprising therefore that, in answer to Lord Durham’s[i] deprecatory remarks to the effect that Canadiens were “a people with no literature and no history,” French-speaking Canadians were galvanized into creating a literary homeland including in their writings all the legends they could dig up.

So, the new relevance given folklore (songs, myths, legends, the supernatural) would explain why Aubert de Gaspé inserted legends and a few strange characters into his Anciens Canadiens. Jules’s mother tells a fascinating legend about a woman who has lost her daughter and is finally made to see that her dead daughter is quite literally drowning in the tears her mother is shedding. Moreover, Aubert de Gaspé creates a sorceress, Marie, whose predictions and prophecies come true. Finally, Jules tells Arché about the feu-follet (the will-o’-the-wisp).

—ooo—

Where la Corriveau is concerned, in the years following her execution, she was basically forgotten, but according to Wikipedia, the 1849 “discovery of the iron cage buried in the cemetery of St-Joseph parish (now the Lauzon district) served to reawaken the legends and the fantastic stories, which were amplified and used by 19th century writers[,]” and beyond. Folklore had been legitimized. Between 1849 and 2006, La Corriveau inspired eighteen stories or works of art. But Aubert de Gaspé was the first to tell about La Corriveau.

I should point out again, but for different reasons, that the Corriveau was the first person to be executed after the Treaty of Paris, which means that when Archibald Cameron of Locheill travelled to the d’Haberville’s manoir, la Corriveau had yet to perform her dastardly deed. Arché went to the Manoir several years before the Corriveau was hanged and then suspended in a chained gibbet. So it is not possible for Archibald Cameron of Locheill to have been grabbed by her body.

—ooo—

Fortunately, fiction has its prerogatives. We must therefore give Aubert the Gaspé some latitude in the name of poetic licence and good storytelling. Fiction and the art have their own rules which allow even the idealization of New France.  I have looked upon Gaspé’s idealization of the past as a flaw, but I have since meditated upon this matter, fiction in particular, and revised my last blog accordingly, but not drastically.

For instance, Blanche remains too pure. She knows that as a British soldier, Archibald had to follow orders and burn down the Manoir. She knows it broke him. She therefore forgives him and so does Jules. Consequently, there is more to Blanche’s story, but she will not marry Arché.

La Corriveau

La Corriveau, illustration by Charles Walter Simpson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The nineteenth-century is Edgar Allan Poe’s century. In former years one had dreaded the supernatural, but Victor Hugo was communicating with the dead.

La Corriveau’s skeleton terrorising a traveller one stormy night.[ii]

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[i] John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham GCB, PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840)
[ii] Charles Walter Simpson (1878 – 1942), illustration for his Légendes du Saint-Laurent, 1926. 
http://pegasusgallery.ca/artist/Charles_Simpson.html
 

© Micheline Walker
1 April 2012
updated 23 October 2014
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